12 July 2011

REGUA, Atlantic Forest, Brazil: 12 July

Spent the day birding an area of REGUA known as Waldenoor - a collection of small holdings only recently purchased by REGUA which contains some excellent quality, and not to mention beautiful, forest (photo 1). The excellent new Veludo Trail drops steadily in altitude through primary forest, secondary forest and dense scrubland, as well previously cleared areas that REGUA has replanted with native pioneer tree species.

The most notable sighting of the day was a female Green Honeycreeper, found by the superhuman eyes of Adilei, one of REGUA's guides. This is a new species for the Reserve and brings the REGUA list up to an incredible 457! Highlight of day for me though was finally catching up with Saffron Toucanet! This little bugger has given me the runaround on previous trips, often reappearing in the very places I had looked just a day or so later and so finding one feeding in a fruiting tree caused for a celebration!

Although the forest was relatively quiet with few birds calling (to be expected in early July) we found some some fantastic winter mixed species flocks and still managed to notch up a long list of birds, including: 4 Whistling Heron, 2 Mantled Hawk soaring with a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, Plain Parakeet, 1 Pileated Parrot, Scaly-headed Parrot, a superb Least Pygmy-Owl being heavily mobbed (photo 2), Scale-throated Hermit and Brazilian Ruby (two altitudinal migrant hummingbirds), 1 Surucua Trogon, 1 Black-throated Trogon, 1 Rufous-capped Motmot, 1 Rufous-tailed Jacamar, 2 Crescent-chested Puffbird, 1 Yellow-throated Woodpecker, Spot-breasted and Plain Antvireos, 1 Star-throated Antwren, 1 Rufous-winged Antwren, Streak-capped Antwren (including one bird at eye level for a change - photo 3), 1 White-shouldered Fire-eye, 2 Rufous-breasted Leaftosser, 2 Scaled Woodcreeper, 2 Rufous-capped Spinetail, Black-capped and Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaners, 1 Pale-browed Treehunter, Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, 1 Eared Pygmy-Tyrant, 2 Rough-legged Tyrannulet (photo 4), 1 Planalto Tyrannulet (photo 5), 2 White-throated Spadebill, 1 Blue-billed Black-Tyrant, 1 Black-tailed Tityra, Black-capped Becard, 1 Rufous-browed Peppershrike, several Olive-green Tanager, 1 Uniform Finch, 9 Yellow-green Grosbeak, 1 Black-throated Grosbeak, 2 Chestnut-bellied Euphonia and a Blue-naped Chlorophonia.





Posted by Lee Dingain at 23:32
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4 comments:

  1. Brent at the Focus16 November 2011 at 20:51

    Very nice pictures. In this set though, picture 4 and 5 are the same species while the comments say picture 4 is a Rough-legged Tyrannulet!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brent at the Focus16 November 2011 at 20:52

    Hi

    The comments say picture 4 is a Rough-legged Tyrannulet, but it is actually the same as picture 5!

    Brent

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brent at the Focus16 November 2011 at 20:58

    Ok

    I take it back. I was thrown by the drawing in Birds of Southern South America, which shows the Rough-legged Tyrannulet as looking quite different from your bird.

    Problem with the guide? Two very different races?

    Brent

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lee Dingain17 November 2011 at 19:36

    Hi Brent,

    These two species are very similar and there is some regional variation. Unfortunately the angle and the lighting doesn't make it easy to see the features, but you can make out the heavier bill of Rough-legged Tyrannulet in photo 4. Some texts say Planalto Tyrannulet has an all dark bill, but I've noticed the SE Brazil race, brevirostris, often shows some orange on the lower mandible. They are best distinguished by call and both of these birds were calling profusely.

    Lee

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